Following the 1994 transition from racial apartheid to democracy, South Africa’s government aimed to provide tenure security for the estimated 16 million black South Africans living in communal areas. But the lack of a clear legal framework applicable to most communal areas meant that progress was slow. In contrast, a viable legal framework did exist to guide tenure reform in smaller communal areas formerly known as “coloured reserves,” where a series of apartheid laws had settled people of mixed race. In 2009, land reform Minister Gugile Nkwiti designated one such area—Ebenhaeser, on the country’s west coast—as a rural “flagship” project. The aim was both to transfer land held in trust by the government to Ebenhaeser community members and to settle a restitution claim. Provincial officials from Nkwinti’s ministry, working with private consultants, organized a communal association to serve as landowner. They helped negotiate an agreement with white farmers to return land that had originally belonged to coloured residents. The community also developed a land administration plan that would pave the way for Ebenhaeser’s residents to become the legal owners of their communal territory.

Lessons Learned

• A legal framework to guide tenure reform in communal areas is vital. The lack of a law to guide the process in the former homelands made it nearly impossible to make any progress in those regions.
• In many of the communal areas of South Africa, the key question is whether traditional leaders should become legal landholding entities. Despite the lack of capacity that hampered many CPAs, Ebenhaeser’s experience offers an alternative to granting legal ownership to traditional leaders.
• A strong, high-level project steering committee was critical for driving implementation. The project required cooperation between a range of different stakeholders. And the creation of a central venue encouraged that collaboration.
• Providing communities with financial and human resources support after they obtain ownership over communal lands is crucial. Documentation proving they were landowners was not enough to immediately enable the Ebenhaeser CPA to use its land productively or access credit.

Leon Schreiber drafted this case study with Professor Grenville Barnes of the University of Florida-Gainesville based on interviews they conducted in the Western Cape, Gauteng, and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, in March 2017. Case published May 2017.

A 2017 workshop, Driving Change, Securing Tenure, profiled recent initiatives to strengthen tenure security and reform land registration systems in seven countries: South Africa, Canada, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Australia and Tanzania.

Watch the video of David Mayson - Managing Director, Phuhlisani

In the wake of the 2011 civil uprising that toppled a longtime dictator, Tunisia’s transitional government struggled to meet citizens’ demands for economic opportunity. Interim Finance Minister Jaloul Ayed saw limited access to financial services as a barrier to building the private sector and creating jobs, but the microfinance industry was overregulated and dominated by a majority-state-owned bank that loaned government funds to nonprofit associations, which in turn loaned to clients at unsustainably low rates. Ayed and his deputy, Emna Kallel, crafted a strategy to expand small businesses’ and entrepreneurs’ access to loans by revising requirements and opening the door to private-sector lenders under the watch of a new supervisory authority. The law upended the existing microfinance industry, creating new opportunities but also disrupting the government-funded associations. Four years later, uncertainties remained, but Tunisia’s microfinance sector had begun to move toward a market-based system under a new regulatory environment that allowed for the industry’s future expansion.  

Robert Joyce, ISS Research Specialist, and Natalie Wenkers of Science Po's Paris School of International Affairs, drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Tunis, Tunisia, during September and October 2015. This case study was funded by the French Development Agency. Case published in February 2016.